Category Archives: Government

160,000 Brits lose jobs to migrants

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A study by the Migration Advisory Committee has revealed that more than 160,000 British people have lost out on a job to an immigrant in the past five years. Figures also revealed that a total of £2,216 is spent per head on education for immigrants and their families every year, whilst only £1,662 is spent on British children. At least 112,000 new homes will need to be built for immigrants over the next five years.

I doubt this will come as much of a surprise to those at the sharp end. No doubt the politicians are already sharpening their pencils in preparation for trotting out the same lame excuses for failing to control immigration into our already overcrowded country. The one about migrants only taking jobs the locals don’t want is a standard one along with the unconvincing one that nobody believes anymore about them making a net contribution to the economy. I wonder if these figures also include all the money wasted on the translation services virtually every public service provider needs to use in order to communicate with many of these immigrants?

Cameron picking the wrong target in his H&S crusade

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David Cameron’s comments on Health and Safety legislation must be a source of great frustration to those working to improve safety in the work place.

His confused thinking is summed up by just one sentence from his speech. “Everyday they battle against a tide of risk assessment forms and face the fear of being sued for massive sums”. He criticises the use of risk assessments and then goes on to talk of the risk of being sued when things goes wrong – does he understand just how ridiculously contradictory this sounds? On the one hand he seems to suggest that risk assessments are an unnecessary blight on businesses, yet in the same breath, he acknowledges that these same businesses are vulnerable to being sued when things go wrong!

The logical conclusion here, is that by addressing the compensation culture that has been created by the no win no fee legal system, you can also dispense with the need for risk assessments. This would be throwing the baby out with the bath water and then some.

By all means, stop the compensation culture in its tracks, by stopping the lawyers from inflating their fees, but leave the well understood and totally justified work place risk assessment requirements in place. There is a clear danger that the current pariahs of the workplace, no win no fee lawyers, will be replaced by cowboy employers, who feel they can ignore worker safety in pursuit of profit, because the Prime Minister says so.

The Health and Safety Executive should be the ones determining the level of safety monitoring and assessment needed in the work place, not the politicians.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24025525-health-and-safety-laws-are-holding-back-business.do

Cameron picking the wrong target in his H&S crusade

Posted on by • Posted in Everyday life, Government • Tagged , , , , , , • Leave a comment

David Cameron’s comments on Health and Safety legislation must be a source of great frustration to those working to improve safety in the work place.

His confused thinking is summed up by just one sentence from his speech. “Everyday they battle against a tide of risk assessment forms and face the fear of being sued for massive sums”. He criticises the use of risk assessments and then goes on to talk of the risk of being sued when things goes wrong – does he understand just how ridiculously contradictory this sounds? On the one hand he seems to suggest that risk assessments are an unnecessary blight on businesses, yet in the same breath, he acknowledges that these same businesses are vulnerable to being sued when things go wrong!

The logical conclusion here, is that by addressing the compensation culture that has been created by the no win no fee legal system, you can also dispense with the need for risk assessments. This would be throwing the baby out with the bath water and then some.

By all means, stop the compensation culture in its tracks, by stopping the lawyers from inflating their fees, but leave the well understood and totally justified work place risk assessment requirements in place. There is a clear danger that the current pariahs of the workplace, no win no fee lawyers, will be replaced by cowboy employers, who feel they can ignore worker safety in pursuit of profit, because the Prime Minister says so.

The Health and Safety Executive should be the ones determining the level of safety monitoring and assessment needed in the work place, not the politicians.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24025525-health-and-safety-laws-are-holding-back-business.do

Train services fall under local control

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Voters could get a say in how their local train services are run under government proposals. Ministers are ready to scrap the system which gives the Department for Transport powers to dictate all train services and choose operators. Instead they are ready to hand over power to councils and locally run transport bodies.
Daily Telegraph, 29 Dec 11, p2

Based on my recent experiences with Network Rail, this proposal should also be extended to the way the local infrastructure is managed. It’s not that Network Rai don’t keep the trains on the tracks, or even the stations in one piece – just, but their communication and customer service skills are non-existent and currently, there doesn’t seem to be any way of giving them the kick up the a**e they so richly deserve!

If local control is introduced, won’t this will be another example of something going full circle? Railways started off as private companies, run locally and needing to keep their local customer base happy in order to stay in business and now we seem to be heading back to where we started.

Time to use our money for our benefit

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The government continues to spout empty words of anguish about the increasing levels of fuel poverty. They should therefore stop picking OUR pockets, through our energy bills, to fund the wind turbine industry and instead use that money to improve the energy efficiency of homes. Not only would it reduce many household energy bills, it would also reduce the overall level of energy consumption for the country – something that wind turbines are clearly not doing.

Wake up, some red tape is essential

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In a clear demonstration of central government’s failure to comprehend what joined up government is about, the Department for Business is resisting attempts to up date the law in respect of scrap metal dealers. Despite the epidemic of metal threats we are currently suffering, these bureaucrats are quoting the government’s drive to reduce red tape as their reason for resisting this desperately needed change to an outdated act.

No doubt there has been some form of lobbying from those in the trade, underpinning this stance by the department. However, unless these civil servants have been living on the other side of the moon for the last 12 months, it’s difficult to understand how they can ignore the criminal activity that has seen war memorial desecrated, trains stopped in their tracks and hospital operation cancelled. Reports of damage to churches and other public building, as well as private houses appear in the press almost daily, demonstrating a need for urgent action.

I wonder if it isn’t time for the taxman to take a hand in this and remind ministers that there’s an nice little earner to be had from finding out exactly how much money changes hands in the mainly cash in hand world of scrap metal dealing? I doubt whether too many scrap metal dealers would be able to wine and dine the HMRC officials in the same way as the likes of Vodaphone and Goldman Sachs have been doing, so we should actually see the full amount of tax being paid, once the legislation takes effect.

Network Rail yet to build bridges with public

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it looks like the saga of the lighting, or rather the lack of it, on Steppingstone Bridge in Spalding might be coming to an end in the new year.  However, whilst Network Rail appear to have agreed  to fund the work required, following discussions with the county council, they deserve little real credit.

Having communicated with a number of national organisations I can safely say, without reservation, that Network Rail is by far the most arrogant and un-cooperative I have ever dealt with.  Almost since the first day the new (secondhand) bridge was opened, people have been complaining about the lack of lighting and the standing water on the top deck.

I alone must have registered at least four complaints, with the inappropriately named, customer service dept in York, about these problems.  Each and every time I was promised a call from their local representative and each and every time it never happened.

Of course Network Rail makes a point of not ignoring everybody, especially when it’s the local MP.  Only a week or so ago, I was told that the county council was still awaiting written confirmation, from Network Rail, that they are willing to finance the work to move the currently non-working light.  Then, by pure chance, I was emailed a copy of a letter sent to John Hayes by Network Rail, stating that they are just waiting for the completion of legal agreements before carrying out the work!  It would seem that Network Rail doesn’t even have the good manners to communicate with the other party to this work, the county council, so what chance does a minor politican like myself have?

I would like to think the passing in to law of the Localism Bill would eventually lead to the building of bridges (pardon the pun) between faceless organisations such as Network Rail and the public.  Unfortunately, based on my personal experience to date, there’s more chance of HS2 being built this century!

Teachers cheating on the exams now!

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How incredibly disappointing yet unsurprising it is to hear that the school examination bodies have been colluding with teachers to increase pass rates.

The reason I find these revelations unsurprising, is because of the nature of the examination bodies – private companies seeking and needing, above all, to make profits.  Given that there are several examination bodies chasing a clearly defined and relatively limited market, it’s hardly surprising to hear that they needed to use such tactics to increase their market share – indeed, how else would you do so, in such a limited and supposedly highly regulated market?

Whilst those who have perpetrated this abuse of the trust placed in them by parents are indeed guilty of some sort of crime, the real villains of the piece are the politicians who decided to privatise the school exam system.  How could it of turned out any differently?  Over provision + a limited market = a need for customer incentives.  Once you’ve decided to use incentives as a way of gaining market share and where there are so few options beyond outright bribery, this sort of abuse was almost inevitable.

Worse still though, is the fact that so many teachers were willing to participate in the abuse and just when their profession was begin to regain some of the respect and status it deserves.  After all, what else is more important than ensuring that our children are well educated?  Shame on these teachers and the damage they have done to our education system.

More of our money to be spent overseas

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Is there no end to this government’s duel fixations of climate change and overseas aid? These two issues seem to of now converged into yet another wasteful financial commitment, this time with a scheme to help Africa reduces its carbon footprint, to the tune of £1billion.
The government continues to tell us that all the financial pain they are visiting upon us is necessary and we just have to ‘suck it up’ and get on with it – it’ll all be worth it in the end. Tens of thousands of public sector workers are loosing their jobs, including many of the service personnel who have been fighting and dying in wars our politicians are so keen to participate in (but not literally of course).
I wonder how many more services will be cut and jobs lost in order to fund what seems to be an ever growing list of vanity projects?

Affordable housing con

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In their housing bill, the government has suggested that developers should be able to renegotiate section 106 agreements for affordable housing contributions, in order to enable them to deliver currently stalled developments. At the same time, the government has found yet more money, in those treasury coffers that are supposedly bereft of funds, to provide £400m for guess what? – affordable housing!

Setting the stage for developers to wriggle out of providing an element of affordable housing within their developments, suggests a return to the council estates we have been working to get away from since Margaret Thatcher introduced right to buy.

The cynic in me sees more than a little collusion, or even out right conspiracy in these proposals. Developers have never liked devaluing their open market housing developments with affordable housing, even when they could afford it. Even then, they tried their best to bunch them all together in the back of the site – almost out of site out of mind (that’s a pun by the way, not a typo)

Now, with the government promoting the renegotiation of s106 agreements for this provision, whilst at the same time providing money for its delivery, it would seem that the developers are going to get their wish and we are going to see the potential emergence of a new clutch of sink estates.

Instead of giving developers a way of undermining local authorities ability to deliver affordable housing using their own policies, why doesn’t the government give councils the £400m? Councils could then use this money to subsidise developers and require them to maintain a mix of tenure within their developments. But of course the developers wouldn’t like that idea, so it’s never going to happen.